sharing a poetic LIFELINE with the world

Posts tagged ‘Japan’

I learned a new literary term yesterday, haibun, when I was reading a story by another writer in a group I belong to. It turns out that haibun is a relatively new literary form that combines prose and poetry, notably haiku. It’s been around since 17th century Japan but is relatively new to Westerners.

According to Wiki, “A haibun may record a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and objective manner or may occupy a wholly fictional or dream-like space. The accompanying haiku may have a direct or subtle relationship with the prose and encompass or hint at the gist of what is recorded in the prose sections.”

So I thought I’d try writing one. Here it is.

Master of Pain

A friend can block pain like turning off a light switch. I ask him, how does he do it? Easy, he says. I focus my mind completely on the task at hand, so deeply that I block out everything else. I’ve been able to do this since I was a young boy.

That explains it. How he achieved so much on playing fields, working through pain to win gold. Great success in board rooms with marriage crumbling around him. Calm and collected in storm of chaos while others cry like croaking ravens. I’m envious. Why can’t I do that?

Hand grips glass tightly
He likes to watch birds soaring
Feelings numb like hand
Later I find out he was once a twelve-year-old, giving CPR to his dying father.
Maybe I don’t need that light switch after all.

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We are . . .

. . . from MA, FL, OH, UT, OR, and WA State, met in an online writers conference in Oct. 2008, and have never met in person

. . . perhaps the embodiment of
those imaginary friends we had while growing up
. . . the ones no one else could see, who were there for us
. . . even when we forgot about them
. . . and have returned
as companions
on our journey.